Published: August 18, 2008 09:09 pm      

H.S. SPORTS: Wilson incident featured by ESPN

WILSON — The old saying goes, “There’s three sides to every story.”

At least two of those sides will get international attention this weekend when the Entertainment Sports Network (ESPN) airs a special program dedicated to last spring’s infamous alleged assault incident in Wilson.

ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” plans to feature a segment at 9:30 a.m. Sunday entitled “A Town Torn Apart,” that deals with an incident that allegedly occurred on the Wilson High School varsity and junior varsity baseball team’s bus on route back to the school.

Excerpts from reporter Elizabeth Merrill’s story on the incident led ESPN.com on Monday.

According to Merrill, “It started for the mothers, really, on April 22 — five days later — with a late-night phone call. The woefully outmatched junior varsity team was playing 50 minutes away at Albion, and got beat 45-0. One JV player said the varsity boys chanted ‘45-0!’ on the bus ride back. Erik arrived home late that night. He didn’t want to talk, just wanted to sleep. He was slumped in a chair when Conor Lynch’s mother called. Did you hear what happened in the back of the bus?

“Conor had just told his parents that he was scared, that he needed to learn some martial-arts moves from his brother, that Erik and Logan had been beaten up a few days earlier and that the big kids were saying he was ‘next.’ He didn’t want anyone else to know. He didn’t want to be a ‘narc.’

“‘Conor stepped up and did a very, very unpopular thing,’ says Jeff Lynch, Conor's father. ‘He told his mom what was going on and it blew it out of the water.’”

Three Wilson varsity players — Geoffrey Seefeldt, 18, and two 16-year-olds, Colton Sherman and Christopher Sidote — have been charged with third-degree aggravated sexual abuse, a felony, and misdemeanor child endangerment.

Besides the three students, Lakemen varsity coach Tom “T.J.” Baia and JV coach Bill Atlas, both of whom were on the bus, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child and were suspended from their coaching and teaching duties with the school district.

As a result of the incident, the 2008 Wilson varsity baseball spring season was immediately canceled.

Seefeldt's attorney, Mark E. Guglielmi, told ESPN, “Our client is anxious to address this matter, unfortunately, at this time we must decline your offer for an interview. We await our opportunity to present our case and for the facts to be heard by the Court. Our client denies the allegations and would like to bring closure to this most unfortunate matter.”

Two notices of claim have been filed by the victims’ lawyer, Terry Connors, indicating a potential lawsuit against the Wilson school district.

One claim says that a varsity player sat on the chest of one victim, holding him down, and that a cell phone was inserted into his rectum. It says the second alleged victim, “John Doe 2,” was beaten, held down and had what felt like “multiple fingers” or a foreign object forced into his rectum.

New York State Police Lt. Richard Allen, whose department interviewed all 30 boys from the April 17 trip, along with alums from two previous seasons, says he’s, “fairly confident” that hazing had been taking place for at least two years under these coaches’ watch.

“We believe this is not a one-time incident,” Allen said. “It's been an ongoing course of conduct at the school — not the sexual assault, but just hazing type of incidents on the bus where the varsity players may have tormented the junior varsity players a little bit. And we feel over time that this has progressed into the incident that happened on April 17.”

The three students and two coaches are set to appear in Wilson Town Court again on Aug. 28. The students’ attorneys have each received letters detailing a possible plea offer.